Not Much Use To Anyone

Not Much Use To Anyone

Trying to write is a struggle at times, and for no good reason.  It cannot be because we aren't thinking of anything, I don't know about you, but i have spent hours in meditation trying not to be trying to think of nothing.  Not to think of the past, or worry about the future, just trying to live the now.  Instead of trying to change the past or predict the future and spending all our time back there or out there, we try to live the now that we are partaking in at the moment.  Emily Dickinson said that "eternity s composed of nows.  Oh, but I got off the subject.  It was finding something to write about. My mind and probably yours is always racing around from thought to thought, so it's not a blank, ever.  So that's not the problem.

with that said, often what's filling the mind at this very moment is trivial, and we believe what we write should be meaningful enough to be communicated.  How my stomach felt this morning as i walked to my car is not exactly meaningful.  I'll go even further to say it is uninteresting to anyone other than the me I was when I walked to my car.  Even to me right now, it is meaningless--and, yes, it's true--boring.  So, just writing about anything that is on your mind is not a satisfactory answer to the writers question.

Is silence useful?  Ask any mother whose child is just getting to sleep, or whose school-age children are chattering away.  "Just let me have a  little peace!"  But I am writing, so, I am ready to ditch silence.  Why ditch silence?  There are some things we do silently that have value.  Often for many, it is prayer, to others it is thought, still others see it as meditation.  But what about the thoughts we have about the people we love and care about, our wishes that they are happy and safe.  And our gratitude for all the things we have in our lives.  Being thankful for those things, like my sister says, "grateful to still be here for another day."  Keeping friends who are going through difficult times--be it health challenges, loneliness, grief over the loss of a friend or family member--in our thoughts is also something we think of as important.

But a thought suddenly came to me, so I'm going to stop writing.  The thought is from a quote from Gertrude Stein, who said, "Silent gratitude isn't very much use to anyone."  I guess the same applies to thinking of others, holding them in your thoughts, etc.  Just think for a minute how much more valuable gratitude, sympathy, keeping others in our thoughts might be if we did something about it.  Call, write, touch, do something instead of just thinking about it.  To do anything else, is "not much use to anyone."  Bye, I need to do some talking instead of thinking.   d